I am trying to clone a Windows 7 Install from one machine to others, in a computer lab situation. I have used clonezilla to make an image of the machine's harddrive and then attempted to write that image to a second machine's disk. Everything went fine, but when I try to boot Windows 7 on the second machine I get a blue screen flash and then it tries to run the startup repair tool, which runs unsuccessfully. Is there something new with Windows 7 that keeps it from being cloned like this?

possibly more appropriate to serverfault? (trobrock, please don't crosspost, this question can be migrated if necessary.)
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quack quixoteMar 29 '10 at 14:59

See my answer here for some tips on software that can do this.
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CGAMar 29 '10 at 15:57

If you have a license to do this you have the MSFT roll-out tools to generate the correct keys.
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Martin BeckettMar 29 '10 at 16:31

Is the hardware identical between the two systems?
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DHayesMar 29 '10 at 19:44

1

@mgb - it's not impractical or uncommon (in some environments) to create a WIM of your drive, and install it on a VHD on the drive for failover or backup, or deploying to another machine on the same network. sysprep /generalize also resets the activation clock (if it hasn't been reset 3 times already). Just re-activate with a new key on the new machine.
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SnOrfusMar 30 '10 at 2:48

3 Answers
3

You can create a WIM of your installation using ImageX, start up in that image and use sysprep /generalize for deployment on the new machine. You'll need to install drivers and activate windows when you deploy to the new machine.

If you want to setup a new user account and machine name on the new system, add the /oobe flag when you sysprep.

As far as I know, windows has been this way since XP or earlier. You can only use windows on the hard drive that it was originally installed on. I think they use a serial number or something that is specific to that disk to prevent duplication.

While a lot of don't like M$, this is illegal, and I'm not even sure this kind of question is allowed on this site.

@bradlis7: while you're correct regarding a retail or OEM Win7 license, Microsoft has lots of different licenses; this may be valid practice (ie, legal) under a site license.
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quack quixoteMar 29 '10 at 14:57

This is rather interesting: so if I back up my HDD, the HDD crashes, then I install the backed up HDD into my machine, then Windows will simply never boot again? F***!
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PP.Mar 29 '10 at 15:11

@quack quixote: You're probably right, I was just speaking from my own experience (installing a single licensed copy of Windows). @PP: It's usually a waste to back up a full copy of Windows. Just reinstall Windows, explain that the hard drive crashed and they will give you an unlock code.
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bradlis7Apr 1 '10 at 16:07